[citation needed] In 1924, her parents and older siblings (Ribi, Levi, Ishokhor, Zulai, Naftoli) moved from Uzbekistan to Tajikistan, where Shoista was born a year later.

[5] Through the years, she sang Shashmaqam music throughout Central Asia, Middle East, and the Soviet Union and made a wonderful living.

[citation needed] In 1991, Shoista and her family began to move from Central Asia, to the United States because of the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the start of the civil war and rise of Islamic fundamentalism in Tajikistan.

In September 2005, in Forest Hills High School, Shoista sang for an audience who all came to celebrate her 80th birthday, including then-New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, former Governor George Pataki, President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan, and Boris Kandov, President of the Bukharian Jewish Congress of USA and Canada.

[citation needed] Boris Kandov published a biography about Shoista Mullojonova, entitled "Born to Sing", written by musicologist and author Rafael Nektalov, as well as making a documentary about the legendary singer.

This being her most famous song, which she sang 65 years earlier on the Tajik state radio on May 9, 1945, on the news of the Soviet Victory over Nazi Germany.

[citation needed] On June 26, 2010, Shoista Mullojonova died after suffering a heart attack in Forest Hills, New York,[9] three months before her 85th birthday.

Soon after, the people of Tajikistan heard this and, the following day, President Emomalii Rahmon sent a message to the United States expressing his condolence to the relatives of this legendary singer,[10] and Tajik embassies around the world held events in her honor.